Secession media focus vexing — for GOP, too

The re-enactment of the battle at the Alamo is watched by hundreds of people lining Alamo Plaza on Saturday, Mar. 5, 2011. Re-enactors dressed in period costumes for the event marked the 175th anniversary of the battle.

Driving to work the morning after President Barack Obama's re-election, I stopped at a light behind an SUV with six capital letters scrawled on its back window:

SECEDE.

My first reaction was to honk in irritation. Once that urge had passed, my second response was journalistic: This could make an interesting column.

A few seconds later, still idling at the light and looking at those letters, I rejected that instinct, too. Whoever defaced his or her vehicle with that word — offensive, to my mind, for its rootedness in racial politics — is an outlier, even in red Texas. Writing about it would merely prove sensational.

Nearly a month later, I still believe that's true. The problem: National media have not exercised such restraint.

This week, On Point with Tom Ashbrook, broadcast on National Public Radio, devoted an hourlong segment to the topic of Texas secession. (San Antonio is not spared: The audio file is posted online above a photograph of rifle-wielding battle re-enactors at the Alamo.)

The radio show gained traction from a New York Times article last week that warned, “In Texas, talk of secession in recent years has steadily shifted to the center from the fringe right.” That overblown assertion was provoked by a petition calling for secession that has garnered nearly 118,000 signatures on a White House website.

(On that point, I would say: So what? Nearly 26 million people live in Texas, and petitioners aren't even required to live in the state to sign.)

Despite my antipathy to the topic, the radio show was fascinating. Ashbrook spoke first to Daniel Miller, a resident of Nederland and president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, who supplied the sensational comments.

“The fact of the matter is the Civil War didn't settle anything,” he said, later comparing NPR correspondent Wade Goodwyn to a “dog who returns to his own vomit” for suggesting that a desire for secession is linked to racism.

The real star of the show, though, was Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, who entertained because he could barely suppress his irritation.

“There's zero chance of secession,” he said, explaining that the Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot secede, and Texas itself has affirmed the same.

“Other than your calling me, I haven't spent any time even thinking about the issue,” Munisteri said. “I have to focus my attention on things that are in the real world.”

The chairman's attention is focused on attracting minorities in a diversifying state. His problem is that nonissues such as secession, along with extremists such as Miller, are getting thrust into the national limelight alongside the Republican Party of Texas.

The “real world,” of course, is now a virtual one, where “Sally V” from Louisville, Colo., can sign an online petition for Texas secession, and a ceaseless, reactionary news cycle magnifies the political fringe — on the right and the left.

Royal Masset, former political director of the Republican Party of Texas, remembers when the trouble was more transitory.

“I'm old enough to remember that we had everything from the Christian coalition — heck, we had the John Birch Society way back in the '50s — we've had all these groups nipping at us, and they usually only last a few months,” he said, adding that the “unknown variable” of the Internet has since imbued extremists with disproportionate influence.

“I'm kind of annoyed because that's what could make (secession) happen,” Masset said. “It's just hard to predict where any of this winds up.”

That's not to say Texas actually could secede. But if the media keep amplifying conservatives such as Miller, a majority of future Texans could end up “seceding” from the GOP.